


Bringing Home a Nice Catholic Boy

by kitkatt0430



Series: Hartmon Bingo 2020 [21]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Background Caitlin/Ronnie, Bible Quotes, Catholicism, Cisco Caitlin Hartley and Barry living together during grad school, Cisco's got a crush on Hartley, Cisco/Cindy - Past Relationship, Fluff, Hartley's very shy here, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Queerphobia, Implied/Referenced Transphobia, M/M, Masters Degrees, Nonbinary Barry Allen, background Westhallen - Freeform, both Cisco and Hartley come from Catholic families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26984875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: In which Cisco's got a crush on his new roommate and Hartley expresses himself with bible quotes when he's nervous.
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Hartley Rathaway
Series: Hartmon Bingo 2020 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1656343
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28





	Bringing Home a Nice Catholic Boy

**Author's Note:**

> For Bingo Prompt O5 - "I walk through the valley of death"
> 
> BINGO!!!! 
> 
> The quote is a common shortening of the line from Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" which is itself only half the verse.

Cisco met Caitlin during orientation before Freshman year. Barry was in his algebra course that first semester. And, somehow, the three of them just clicked. So after they graduated with their various bachelors degrees and were gearing up to go back for their masters... they decided to rent a place together.

There was a four bedroom house walking distance from campus that was perfect and the landlady had a good reputation among student renters, as she apparently owned several properties. So they were relatively certain that she'd come through for them if there was a plumbing disaster or electrical problem. The rent wasn't too bad either, and they'd be able to cover it pretty well on their own. But there other bills to consider. Electrical, gas, and internet. Student loans to start paying back before interest kicked in. A fourth tenant would help all of them save just that little bit more money.

So they'd put out an ad on a campus corkboard at the student union specifically for that purpose and got a few callers who were interested. Around the same time it hit the news that Hartley Rathaway, heir to the Rathaway family's business and fortune, had been quite publicly disowned for being gay. In fact, Cisco was reading about it in the paper when his cell phone buzzed with a call from the man himself, looking for a place to live and hoping they'd find him to be a good fit.

They'd struck out on the first couple of interested callers. The first was queerphobic and quite literally stopped the conversation to pray for their souls when Barry had corrected xyr pronouns. Xe was bi on top of being nonbinary, Cisco was unapologetically pan, and Caitlin was a questioning demi. But Cisco was also not about to let Christianity get weaponized against him and his friends, so when she stopped her prayer, he cheerfully offered to lead a prayer in hopes that those who twisted God's words of love to spew hatred and bigotry would find the courage to truly look at who they were becoming and find repentance and acceptance in Her eyes.

Suffice it to say that she'd given him the stink eye and called him a nasty word before flouncing off in a huff.

Caitlin had been the first to crack, giggling into her coffee over the effectiveness of Cisco's politely passive aggressive rebuttal and cheerful reminding them that "this is why we're screening prospective roommates first."

The second person had apparently been nice enough until Cisco showed up, having been running late due to covering for a coworker who'd needed to leave early for a family emergency. When Cisco sat down at the table at Jitters, the guy had gone really quiet, just staring at Cisco. Then he stood up, told Barry and Caitlin he wouldn't be a good fit after all, and then booked it out of there. Forgot his drink too.

The dude's Facebook page - which they'd checked the night before - had seemed clean enough, but Cisco found a link to the guy's twitter account while they were sitting around at the café, a little bewildered by what had just happened. Things made a little more sense as Cisco cringed over the tweets he found there.

"Dude's a racist. Thinks the Orange Cheeto can't build his wall fast enough. Probably believes all Hispanics are Mexican," Cisco reported.

"We've got to get better at checking up on people before we meet them in person," Caitlin sighed while Barry nodded into xyr espresso.

The third guy was a misogynistic ass to Caitlin and also transphobic to Bar, so it seemed their attempt to weed out prejudiced jerks wasn't working as well as they'd hoped. Probably the low rent acting as a siren song. But the point is that they were 0-3 by the time Hartley called.

"Are you still looking for a fourth roommate?" Hartley asked immediately after ascertaining he'd reached the right person.

"That's right. I take it you're interested?" Cisco waited for the affirmative before telling him, "we'd like to get an idea of what you're, well... like before we try meeting in person. Check out your Facebook page and any social media you'd be comfortable sharing with us? We've had a few... unfortunate meet ups, so..."

"Yeah, no... it's... it's cool." Hartley sounded nervous over the phone, but... he had a nice voice. "Is this a good number to text links to or... would you rather an email?"

"Go ahead," Cisco told him. "I'll try to get back to you either this evening or tomorrow morning either way, just so we don't leave you hanging okay?"

"Thanks."

Cisco's phone chimed, signaling an incoming text. "And just so you've got an idea of what we're like," Cisco gave a short description of all of them, making sure to touch on the significant details that had cause the first three applicants to fail the live meet and greet. Both Barry and Caitlin had given Cisco permission to do so after the last failure. And as a bonus, Cisco threw in the breakdown of what the shared expenses would look like.

"Honestly, hearing you're all queer like me just makes me want to get the room all the more. I mean... I snagged your number off the flyer 'cause it looks a lot nicer and more affordable than the place I'm staying now, but having roommates I can be openly gay around?" Hartley sighed. "That's the dream right there. Since you guys are checking out my Facebook, mind if I poke at your public pages too?"

"Not at all. Just note that while Barry's out on campus, xyr not out online yet."

"No outing xem," Hartley promised, tone sincere. 

Cisco's gut reaction was to like the guy. The Facebook page held posts where Hartley talked about finding the courage to come out and how difficult dealing with the reality that his parents chose their bigotry over him was and how he was volunteering at a relatively new charity called Freespace that was specifically oriented towards getting homeless LGBT+ youth off the streets. He was cute too; Cisco had to remind himself this was about gaining a roommate, not a boyfriend.

Hartley'd also supplied a link to his twitter - a verified account - where once again his most recent tweets were about how freed he felt after coming out, but also about how he'd chosen to stay closeted until he could support himself. He also talked a lot about being hard of hearing and the casual everyday ableism he encountered as a result. Cisco definitely felt like he was being educated.

There was one chain of tweets, however, that Cisco kept coming back to.

_"Corinthians 13:4-8 - Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails._

_"While these verses are so often applied to the ideal of romantic love, it describes all types of love. The love found in celebrating with a friend through their triumphs and offering them help at their lowest points. It's in the love we should have for our neighbors, found in the willingness to share what we have instead of hoarding it away. It's the love of a parent for their child._

_"A good parent must be patient and kind. They must not compare their child negatively to other people's children or use their children as a way to relive their own childhood. They should celebrate their child's successes, reward hard work regardless of the outcome, and offer support when their child struggles. They should forgive their child's mistakes instead of compounding them with seemingly unending punishment. (That's not to say there should be no consequences just that a.) should fit the actual events and b.) when those consequences are served out, it's over. Move on, and help the kid learn how to move on, instead of wallowing over it.) A parent's love should be able to accept their child as they are instead of trying to force their child to be someone they aren't._

_"It means accepting your child might be queer. It means accepting your child might not be cis. (which is queer but deserves a call out on it's own for emphasis) It means accepting your child may be disabled. It means accepting that if your child doesn't conform to your ideal of perfection, they aren't ruining your life by existing. It means being willing to apologize to your child when you're the one who is wrong."_

And while Hartley didn't out and out say that he wished his parents had been good parents to him, the implication was certainly there.

(After Cisco had re-read it for the umpteenth time, he called his parents to just talk to them because... he'd never doubted their love for him or his brothers and was maybe feeling a little emotional about that at the moment.)

Anyway. That evening Cisco presented what he'd found on their prospective roommate to Barry and Caitlin and they agreed Hartley sounded like a good fit. So Cisco called Hartley back and setup a lunch meeting for the next day.

A week later, Hartley was moving into his new room and Cisco had updated his voicemail to include a mention that if anyone was calling about the roommate advertisement that the room had already been filled.

* * *

Not long after Hartley moved in, Cisco was talking with Armando - who was teasing Cisco for agonizing over an essay - and dropped the line "I walk through the valley of death" to describe how in over his head he felt with this class. At the time he was in the kitchen, as was Hartley, and Cisco didn't really care if his end of the conversation was overheard. Afterwards, once Cisco hung up and finally got to his lunch - which Armando's call had interrupted - Hartley looked rather like he had something he wanted to say. 

"It's a misquote, you know," Hartley finally said, right as Cisco had a bite of sandwich in his mouth.

Cisco had to finish chewing and swallow before saying, "what is?"

"The 'I walk through the valley of death' line. It's a popular misquote of one of the psalms."

On some level, Cisco had known that. "Right, it's really 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil', right?"

"Pretty much. 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.' Some translations use 'darkest valley' but it doesn't quite evoke the same... depth of feeling, I suppose," Hartley offered. Then he blushed. "Sorry, I have a lot of the psalms memorized."

"Don't be," Cisco replied reassuringly, hoping that he wasn't noticeably blushing. The way Hartley'd recited the psalm made it sound very different from the way scripture had been read in his Religious Education classes as a kid or the way psalms were sung in mass on Sundays. With Hartley speaking those words, they became something new and special.

He kind of wanted to hear more.

* * *

Cisco does indeed get to hear more. Hartley's got a tempestuous relationship with the church at the moment, but he's still attending mass. Cisco hasn't attended regularly in years, but suddenly he's going along with Hartley to the nearest church every Sunday at eleven. Last mass of the day starts at eleven-thirty, giving them plenty of time to drive over, find seats, and glance over what the day's readings would be. The priest is even known for being quietly LGBT+ friendly, which is a nice bonus.

The dread that he might have to stay silent as a priest called for the congregation to pray for the queer community to stop being queer - queer like God had made them, so of course it wouldn't happen - had been part of what had caused Cisco to stop attending regularly in the first place. It was nice to have that sense of church community back without having to feel like an imposter... like he was being singled out to be shamed in God's house...

Suffice it to say, Cisco had forgotten what it was like to actually enjoy mass and attending with Hartley brought that feeling back.

And if Caitlin raised an eyebrow at him and smirked knowingly as he got into the car with Hartley every Sunday morning, well... it's not exactly like she was wrong. Cisco had a definite crush on Hartley Rathaway.

* * *

Cisco's cart is halfway out of the aisle when another cart bumps into it. 

"Oh, sorry about that, I wasn't..." the woman speaking trailed off for a moment before finishing, awkwardly, "paying attention. Hey, Cisco."

"Cindy." Cisco tried to smile but he's pretty sure the expression he manages doesn't quite make it all the way. 

They'd dated, briefly, some two years ago. And flirted for a long while before that. But she'd transferred schools shortly after they started dating. Cisco had known it was coming, so it wasn't like the long distance had been a surprise. But they'd thought they could make it work. Instead it had just made them both stressed and cranky with each other and they ended up breaking up. There wasn't any big fight, there was just this realization that dating was making them miserable. He hadn't seen her since the breakup, though they'd talked a few times on the phone afterwards.

"You're back in town?" He finally said, after a moment of awkwardness. And then had to resist the urge to press his hands to his face, because obviously she was in town. She was smacking his cart with her cart, after all. "Is this permanent or..."

"Just for a few weeks. My parents are moving to California, so I'm helping pack up the house and getting it ready to sell. Gotta box up all my stuff and try to avoid letting them pawn too much of the junk they don't want to keep off on me," Cindy laughed nervously. "It's, um... it's been a while. Since we last talked. How'd things turn out on the roommate front?"

"We settled on a guy. Hartley. He's gay and newly out of the closet and super happy to be living with a bunch of fellow queers. A little shy, but I think we're helping him get over that." Cisco did smile this time and something kind of sad seemed to flicker across Cindy's face in response.

But she straightened a little and asked if Cisco wanted to finish grocery shopping with her so they could spend the time catching up too. Which was nice and by the time they headed to the checkout lines, Cisco felt a lot less awkward around Cindy.

When he got back home, Hartley helped him unload the groceries and store them away. Though he seemed kind of... down as Cisco related running into his ex-girlfriend.

"I'll have to try and meet up with her one more time before she goes back to the east coast," Cisco finished. 

"Think you'll try dating with her again?" Hartley asked quietly.

"Nah. That spark we had? It's all gone. And even if it weren't, we were not good at long distance when we dated before. I have no doubt that it'd be just as stressful and awful and messy if we tried again. No thank you," Cisco declared. "I'm just glad I ran into her and not one of my other exes," he admitted ruefully. "The guy I went out with a few times before Cindy was just... he seemed really nice, you know? And then I overheard him telling his frat brothers that he was going out with me on the side 'cause even though I wasn't.... I wasn't attractive, I was good with my mouth."

Cisco had run crying to Caitlin after that one and Barry had to be talked out of avenging him. Only for xyr girlfriend - Iris - to go punch the guy instead. She was the one who'd talked xem out of it too, which kind of made it that much more hilarious.

"How could he even say that, though? You're, like, the most attractive guy I've ever met," Hartley objected and then turned bright pink. “You are beautiful in every way, my friend, there is no flaw in you." 

Cisco was blushing now too, his chest all warm and floaty at the compliment. But there was something familiar about those words.

"Is that, um... is that a quote?" Cisco asked hesitantly.

"It's from the Song of Solomon." 

"Those were written by King Solomon, right?" Cisco laughed when Hartley shook his head negatively. "I guess I just gave away how little I paid attention in my RE classes as a kid."

"Solomon's name got added to it later, but the Song of Solomon is also known as the Song of Songs or," Hartley bit his lower lip as he tried to remember some other name for the book.

Cisco wished he was the one nibbling at that lower lip. 

"The Canticle of Canticles," Hartley finally finished. "I think." Hartley's phone rang and he gestured nervously at the door to the living room. "It's my sister, I've got to, um.."

"No problem. I can get the last of it taken care of on my own. Thanks for the help." Cisco waved him off. But something niggled quietly at him that he couldn't quite place until later, at his laptop that evening, Cisco looked up the Song of Solomon online.

Naturally Cisco's first stop wound up being Wikipedia, which was also his last stop as he read, and then re-read, the introductory paragraphs a few times. Particularly second paragraph where it said that this book of the bible was all about celebrating the sexual love between two people. Basically it was religious love poetry.

Hartley had quoted religious love poetry to him.

Cisco might've squeaked, shut his laptop something sharpish, and launched himself into bed under his weighted blanket. This didn't necessarily mean Hartley liked him back, but wow did the possibility make him want to go dancing around the house. Something his roommates wouldn't appreciate and Cisco definitely didn't want to explain to Hartley. (The blanket helped weigh him down, keep him centered, and made the energy that made him bouncy slowly bleed away. He did still have to get up and twirl around his room a few times anyway, always diving back under the blanket after a minute or two, but the point was he didn't feel the need to go up and down the hallway outside his door.)

* * *

Thanksgiving snuck up on their little household quite unexpectedly. Barry had to confirm last minute plans to spend the long weekend with Iris and her dad and Iris' boyfriend Eddie, whom Barry had a low-key crush on. (And by low-key Cisco meant ridiculously obvious to everyone but Eddie, likely because he couldn't see all the time xe spent staring at his butt.) Similarly, Caitlin was being whisked away on an out of town vacation by her boyfriend Ronnie. Cisco was planning on going home to see his parents and brothers, like usual. But that left Hartley.

Hartley couldn't spend Thanksgiving with his parents because they'd disowned him and were jerks that Hartley was better off without anyway. But he also couldn't spend time with his sister, who was sweet and adorable from what Cisco had picked up on, but also still a minor and banned from interacting with Hartley. Not that this stopped her from calling and emailing Hartley as often as possible. (Cisco was quite certain that, if she could get away with it, Jerrie Rathaway would throw hands with her own parents over Hartley's honor. As it was, he had no doubt that come her eighteenth birthday, Jerrie Rathaway would be high-tailing it out of her parents house and never looking back.) 

"You could have Thanksgiving with my family," Cisco offered. "I mean, if you don't mind it getting a little rambunctious? My brothers can get kind of competitive sometimes and they care a lot more about football than I do." Cisco smirked as he added, "though it's always entertaining to point out that soccer is the real football and that American Football is basically rugby with more rules and padding. They get ridiculously defensive of a sport none of us even played in high school. Dante was in baseball and Armando did basketball."

"Did you play a sport?" Hartley asked.

"Nope. I did color guard and the drum corp. Though I guess the color guard put me a lot closer to football than them since I had to be at every home game for the half time show. What about you?"

"Marching band," Hartley told him. "I play the flute." He hesitated a moment, then added, "I'd be happy to celebrate Thanksgiving with you and your family, Cisco."

"Awesome. I'm going to give my parents a call, let them know you'll be joining us. I hope you like Puerto Rican foods." Cisco hugged Hartley impulsively, reveling in the all too brief moment of contact. The firm warmth of Hartley's chest, the feeling of Hartley's spine creating bumps beneath the pads of his fingers, the touch of Hartley's hands against Cisco's own back...

Then Cisco headed for the stairs, but not before he could have sworn he heard Hartley mutter, "for what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake..."

Quoting the bible again, no doubt. It seemed that was what Hartley did when he felt like he was at a loss for words. Cisco found it surprisingly endearing.

* * *

"You," Cisco's father declared, "need to ask that boy out before he pines away to nothing."

Cisco blushed and squeaked out "what?"

"He's been making moon eyes at you all afternoon," Armando chimed in. 

"He's not the only one being all mushy and ridiculous," Dante added, slinging an arm around his little brother's shoulders. "You've been giving him longing looks of your own too. Do you need our help?"

"We would totally help you ask him out," Armando agreed with a snicker.

Cisco's father was clearly whom Cisco's brother's had inherited their shamelessness from because he added, "we could draft you a love letter for him."

"Oh god," Cisco muttered, burying his face in his hands. "Why are you all so embarrassing?" He peered up over his fingers. "I can figure this out on my own. Do. Not. Help." Then he escaped to the kitchen to help cook, which was really more like hovering while things baked in the oven and Hartley taught Cisco's mother his recipe for pecan pie from scratch.

"Most pecan pie fillings call for pre-cooking on the stove," Hartley was saying as Cisco settled at the breakfast bar with a beer. "But this one doesn't and it's kind of hard to get wrong. Assuming I'm remembering the recipe correctly anyway. One-third cup brown sugar..."

"Wait, wait, let me copy this down," Sophia Ramon interrupted, grabbing her notepad for groceries off the counter. "You should come back with Cisco for Christmas. I can make this for you then." 

Hartley beamed, his eyes a little watery looking as he took off his glasses and wiped at them. "Thank you, Mrs. Ramon."

"Call me Sophia," she insisted.

"Sophia," Hartley repeated, sounding touched, and rubbed at his eyes again.

* * *

In the end, Cisco's not really sure which one of them made the first move. They just sort of gravitated towards one another on the couch one evening, watching _Stargate_ on the communal plex app that Cisco and Barry had thrown together. It was chilly outside, so they were cuddled together under blankets and pretending it was totally platonic.

(If it had been Caitlin or Barry cuddled up with Cisco? It totally would've been platonic. But it's not. It's Hartley and Cisco feels like he's being driven to distraction by the soft touch of Hartley's arm around his waist, hand on his hip.)

There's this moment where they both lost the plot of the show. A moment where they turned and looked at each other and it should have been just a glance. But neither could quite manage to look away. Instead they leaned towards each other until, gently, they were kissing.

It was absolutely wonderful. Electric even. Cisco was totally going to have to dance around with joy when the kissing stopped. And then go back to the kissing because... did he mention it was absolutely wonderful?

"This is okay, right?" Cisco asked when their lips parted. 

Hartley nodded hard, pleased and blushing. He opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again. Then, finally, he said, "kiss me and kiss me again, for your love is sweeter than wine."

Cisco recognized it from Song of Solomon. Which he might've been brushing up on after the last time he had religious love poetry quoted to him. Beaming, Cisco stood up from the blanket pile, offered Hartley his hands, and pulled him up into a dance with no music, twirling to the beat of their hearts together.

**Author's Note:**

> The pecan pie recipe Hartley mentions is as follows:
> 
> preheat the oven to 375 degrees (Fahrenheit)  
> Prepare a 15 oz pie crust in a pie pan/dish  
> in a bowl mix:  
> \- 1/3 cups brown sugar  
> \- 1 & 1/2 tsp flour  
> \- 1 & 1/4 cups corn syrup  
> \- 3 eggs  
> \- 1 & 1/4 tsp vanilla  
> \- 2 tbsp butter (melted)  
> \- 1 cup pecan halves (more or less as you prefer)  
> Pour into the crust and bake for 40~50 minutes
> 
> I usually bake it for 50 minutes, which can get it a little crispy on top (should probably remember to cover it with foil one of these days to try and avoid that) but avoids having the center get a little gooey. If it sets well, then the pie should jiggle a little - but not a lot - when you pull it out of the oven, though it can be difficult to judge if the center is fully set. Which is why I recommend going the full 50 min.
> 
> Once the pie is out of the oven, let it sit for about half an hour to an hour. Then you can either serve it warm or stick it in the fridge and have it chilled for the next day. I prefer chilled, or at least room temp; I find that warm pecan pie has a slightly different texture that I don't quite enjoy as much as cold pecan pie.
> 
> The recipe also freezes well and can be split into smaller servings if you want to make personal sized pies and freeze them for later. (Which I will be doing either later this month or early next month.) Though for the smaller pies try to do a batch of three for more like 45 mins? It depends on the oven, really.


End file.
